Musings, Meanderings & Miscellaney

On Giving Thanks and Giving Back

Like many of you who are reading this – at least those of you in the United States – I woke up to a social media feed parade of photos of pies, dinner rolls, and other delightful dishes being prepared for Thanksgiving dinners. And in the midst of those photos was a shared post from my dear friend J. Kelly Hoey, expressing her gratitude for her friend’s initiative, Project Batman. Curious, I clicked the link.

I hope you will, too.

Today, in the United States, it is Thanksgiving Day.

It’s the day we give thanks as a nation for our bounteous provisions, our blessings, our lives. Whether we live in extreme wealth or extreme poverty, we collectively celebrate our good fortune to call the United States home. And we spend this one day grateful for what we have and what is possible.

Today, I will bring to mind and be grateful for the many blessings I’ve known in my own life. I will spend time enjoying amazing food prepared and shared by those I love. I’ll enjoy the fellowship of family. I’ll be grateful for one more Thanksgiving with all of my children together and be grateful for the remarkable adults they are becoming.

I know that even my health is a blessing. I am also quite aware that I did nothing to deserve being born into a country where the stability of the government and freedom granted to its citizens have enabled me to live in a manner that most of the world will never experience. I know that is a blessing, and so I will be grateful and not take it lightly.

But today, as I give thanks for the many blessings that I enjoy, I am also keenly aware of so many that are living in tenuous circumstances, their lives ripped apart and their loved ones missing or gone – and so I will be grateful, too, for the individuals who see that incredible need and pray for them … and then turn those prayers into actions which change for the better the lives of those in need.

One such woman – and there are many – is Megan Morgan, who has launched Project Batman, to provide coats and winter clothing to the many refugee children spending their winter in a refugee camp in Turkey. Because she saw a need and cared enough to organize this initiative, children living as refugees will know warmth, if only for one winter. They have lost their homes, their security, and, often, their loved ones. And because of Megan Morgan, for every individual who donates $25, one of these children will not go through a cold winter without proper winter clothes.

I think of Sara Corry who chose to uproot herself from a very secure life here in the United States to move to Ghana to establish a sewing cooperative, Batiks for Life, to give homeless mothers a marketable skill while paying them a living wage to create beautiful batik scrubs for medical professionals.

I, like Kelly, am grateful for individuals like Megan and Sara who rise up to meet a need, who move far beyond gratitude for their own blessings to give back to others.

If today, on Thanksgiving, we are not moved by the plight of others – and moved by more than just a passing emotion as we scroll through our social media, then we’ve lost the real spirit of Thanksgiving. And so I encourage everyone who reads this post to find some way to give thanks by giving back – to help another, whether it is inviting someone to share your day that would otherwise be alone, to take a plate of food to a lonely neighbor, to say thank you to those who are not with family today to ensure the safety of our city, the care of those in medical need, and the stability of the services we enjoy. And if you’re inspired to do so, I hope you’ll find some way to help someone less fortunate – through initiatives like Project Batman or one of your own.